ACAAI: Fido Stays Despite Kids' Asthma

Action Points

Explain that a survey of parents of asthmatic children who were allergic to pets found that less than a third complied with recommendations to get rid of the pet.

Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

MIAMI BEACH -- Parents of asthmatic children don't typically comply with recommendations to get rid of their pets, even though the kids may be allergic, researchers said here.

Only 29% of surveyed parents reported giving their animals the boot after their allergist told them to do so for their child's health, Nevin Wilson, MD, chair of pediatrics at the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Reno, reported at the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology meeting.

And other researchers at the meeting felt that percentage may be high, Wilson said.

"The feedback I got was that most [allergists] thought this number of patients who removed their pet was higher than in their experience," he added.

Allergists aren't sure just how many patients follow their orders, which is why Wilson and his colleagues conducted the survey. They asked parents about compliance with pet avoidance recommendations, as well as their reasons for not complying.

Wilson said that although the most common recommendation is to get rid of the pet completely, allergists "know people won't do that."

"Allergists are famous for looking at skin tests and saying, 'You've got to get rid of Fluffy,'" Wilson said. "That clearly doesn't work. Most people aren't going to do that."

So they sent 300 anonymous questionnaires to parents of pet-allergic asthmatic children who'd been given pet-avoidance recommendations; 58 were returned completed.

A total of 41.4% of respondents said their child's asthma was mild, 32.8% said it was moderate, and 65% said their children took asthma maintenance medication. Most families -- 64% -- owned a dog.

Only 29% of parents reported removing the pet from the house.

Instead, nearly two-thirds of parents said they dusted or washed hard surfaces of the house and kept the animal out of bedrooms. About 50% said they bought a HEPA filter.

The vast majority -- 84% -- said they believed performing these measures would improve their child's symptoms.

Wilson said cleaning well is probably not sufficient to avoid asthma exacerbations, because dander from animals lingers for at least six months after they are removed from the home.

"Allergens from pets, particularly cats, are difficult to degrade," he said.

A third of parents said they did not believe the diagnosis that their child was allergic to the pet.

"I think that's mostly just denial," Wilson said. "What we often hear is that they don't seem to perceive that the child was made sick while around the pet, therefore the pet is not the cause."

"But the problem, of course, is that when the child is inside, he or she is saturated with pet allergens," he added. "So parents wouldn't notice any significant differences whether the kid is petting the pet or whether he's across the room from the pet because he's just saturated with it."

But there's "no question that pet dander is a contributing factor" to asthma exacerbations, Wilson said.

A major reason given by surveyed parents for not removing the pet was concern that doing so would cause the child emotional harm.

"That's clearly what people are worried about, the psychological risks of getting rid of the pet," Wilson said.

Parents also believed that medication would resolve their child's symptoms even if the pet remained in the house.

Wilson said the results confirm the importance of spending more time with the parents to make them aware of the risks of keeping the pet.

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